Mario vs. Donkey Kong(Nintendo Switch) Review

This might be the most, "its not bad but not anything amazing" game I have played in a while. Nothing about the game is outright terrible but at the same time, it's not exactly masterclass in game design either. The whole game feels like Nintendo wanted to remake this particular game because the recent Mario movie had DK and Mario be "shonen rivals" and Nintendo wanted to cash in off that.

My big issue with the game is the asking price for it and how since this is a Nintendo 1st party Switch game trying to find a discount for it is going to be something you have to go out of your way for.

You can probably beat the first 8 worlds and get the first credits drop within less than probably 4-5 hours, it seems the most of the game's content and value comes from getting 100% it and doing everything the game has to offer, which doesn't really interest me. I normally don't like complaining about this stuff since I was looking for a short game to play but the whole thing while not "terrible" just feels underwhelming. It's a little confusing what I am saying but the best way of describing the game is that the gameplay is "fine" but the content feels lacking. Maybe adding in 10 worlds instead of 8 would've helped.

With all that said, what exactly do you do in Mario vs. DK? What if 2D Mario was a puzzle platformer rather than a traditional one? You get this game. The game overall has this very relaxing and chill tone going on that I really enjoy, if you like games like that this is worth playing, I played on Casual Mode since timers while solving puzzles stresses me out. The lives system is pointless on casual mode especially since you will have to try pretty hard to lose them all on that setting.

The whole game mainly consists of getting keys where Donkey Kong is than getting the Mario toy inside the level and you don't need to get the optional gifts in the levels either, you can run straight for the Mario Toys and the game will not chastise you for skipping the "optional" gifts much to my surprise which adds more to my point that you'll get the most out of the game if you aim to 100% it.

The game controls decently enough, Mario has just enough weight and feels precise enough for the most part that it never feels like I am killing myself due to doing things I never intended to do.

I am not big on puzzlers but solving the puzzles in this particular game 95% of the time felt engaging and intuitive, I rarely if ever needed to look up a guide and when I did it's mainly because of an ability I forgot Mario can even do which is an issue I always with the genre since it's easy to be stuck on a part and you are stuck because has reintroduced the ability in a while like for example being able to throw objects upwards or Mario's long jump, to the latter's credit once the game reintroduced after spending multiple levels without doing so, I was abusing it left and right.

The level design and scenarios are mostly "fine", I wish the levels before the first credits roll had more abilities stack on to each other rather than introduce one or two gimmicks in one stand alone level, then disregard it in the next level after. For example the shield enemy might get introduced in one level, but the following one he might not pop up again or how there might be fireballs or lasers in one or two levels but they might not show up until 3-4 levels later.

None of this is "bad" by any means since the mere act of solving the puzzle in each individual level generally hits the sweet spot, "of not too easy but not too hard" but it does add more reasons on why I am just sort of lukewarm on the game. Also, while I think the brisk levels sort of add to the game's charm, they sort of make long term engagement hard since for me, I think the right length for any video game level is 20-30 minutes, anything lower or higher might take me out of it but your mileage may vary.

Overall, Mario vs. DK is not a "terrible" or "great" game, it's an enjoyable game that I feel like is a bit more biased towards people who like to 100% games rather than have that inital first time through feel incredible. If you can somehow find the game for cheap and you love to do everything a game has to offer, I'd say the game is worth checking out.